Friday November 20 is the annual Trans Day of Remembrance (TDoR). The first annual TDoR was held in 1999 and created by trans advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith to honour the memory of Rita Hester, a trans woman who was killed in 1998. It is now an observance to commemorate the trans people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence, with 2020 being a record year for anti-trans hate crimes.
According to Transrepect versus Transphobia Worldwide (TvT), an organisation which monitors violence against the trans community, 350 trans people have been killed so far this year, compared to 331 last year. 98% of those murdered globally were trans women or trans feminine people, and 82% of all reported murders happened in Central and South America, with Brazil being the deadliest country in the world for trans people. 38% of the murders took place on the street and 22% in their own residence.
A TvT spokesperson told Forbes that the coronavirus pandemic has greatly impacted the trans community this year. Lukas said: “The impact of COVID-19 is being felt most severely by trans people who are homeless, sex workers, disabled, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, poor, and/or elderly. Those communities are not only affected by the virus itself, but also by health care systems and providers, as well as by the socioeconomic and political impact of the pandemic.”
He continued: “At the same time, we are noticing some governments using the pandemic as an excuse for violating human rights, with signs of a wide range of political and legal rollbacks leading towards more systemic discrimination against trans people in the world.”
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